The Jewish American Paradox by Robert H. Mnookin

Author:Robert H. Mnookin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2018-11-26T16:00:00+00:00

ASSUMING A RESOLUTION ALONG the lines outlined above, polling data has suggested that a majority of both Israelis and Palestinians would accept a two-state solution if they thought the other side was really prepared to implement it. Yet despite mediation efforts by the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, Israeli and Palestinian leaders have not achieved a negotiated resolution. Why has so little progress been made?

There are many barriers to agreement,8 including the distrust created by a long history of violence between the two sides. But my own view is that the most significant barriers are internal conflicts among Israeli Jews on the one hand and Palestinians on the other.

For Israelis the most divisive issue is the future of the settlements.9 As a practical matter, the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank would require the relocation of tens of thousands of Jewish settlers, at great cost to them and the Israeli government. As an ideological matter, it would also mark the end of the Eretz Israel (Land of Israel) project, the dream of some religiously observant Israelis to reclaim biblically significant lands for the Jewish state. These Israelis, known as National Religious settlers, have long pursued settlements as a way of restoring Israel to its ancient contours. There is some fear within Israel that a negotiated two-state deal that destroys this dream might provoke violence from these settlers.

Among Palestinians the most divisive issue is the right of return.10 The Palestinian National Liberation Movement has always defined itself as a refugee movement, and Palestinian leaders have long insisted that the Palestinian people, both collectively and individually, have the right to reclaim the land and property that once was theirs. But beneath the surface there lurks a profound internal conflict among Palestinians about the scope and meaning of the right of return. Privately, many Palestinians acknowledge it’s unrealistic to expect that Israel would ever accept the immigration of millions of Palestinian refugees. Moreover, some polls suggest that many refugees would rather receive compensation and citizenship rights in a new Palestinian state—or in some other country of their choosing—than in Israel. But the same polls indicate that a substantial minority of refugees and their descendants want to return to their original homes in what is now Israel. There is concern among Palestinians that any negotiated two-state solution that extinguishes the right of return to Israel proper could provoke violent opposition from those refugees.

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